Meandering through giant glittering sculptures, terrifying animals with bulging eyes and a model of a collapsed, mummified artist covered in what's meant to be semen, I'm left thinking I could spend a lifetime exploring the entirety of this year's Frieze Art Fair. But I'm here to find Recollection - a commissioned art project that takes the form of an aquarium.

The project space is located towards the back of the Frieze gallery. Around a white-walled corner, through a curtain and down a black corridor is a small dark room with a single fish tank located at its centre. My eyes are immediately drawn to the star attraction of the aquarium - a giant hermit crab.
This hermit crab was brought in at the last minute to replace the original candidate, which was held at the US border when officials thought the shell it wore was that of an endangered species.

The new star, however, is wearing an entirely different sort of shell - the mask-like replica of Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi's Sleeping Muse.
Carrying a piece of art on its back, as its home, the crab takes on a
curious and almost comical quality as it scurries around the tank.

Mars-like
red rock comprises the entire furnishings of the tank, which makes for
an alien scene as the shimmering shelled-giant hermit crab and a number
of spider-like arrow crabs
scuttle over every crevice. Perhaps it's the thought of the red planet,
but the more I watch these creatures with their long triangular heads,
the more extraterrestrial they seem. Even the water's cloudiness gives
the scene an eerie, otherworldly feel.

Pierre Huyghe,
the French artist behind the project, aims to host a narrative within
the aquarium. The idea is that the natural interactions between the
creatures - or performers - will create a story for viewers. While I sat
watching the scene, I did see what looked like a brief tussle between
two arrow crabs - a struggle for alien territory, perhaps? Or maybe an
attempt to impress the regal, art-adorned crab king?

As other
visitors joined me in the room, they became equally enamoured with the
scene. One pair tried to come up with a fitting name for the crab, while
others attempted to find a meaning behind the mask-like shell.

Recollection
appeared to be a big hit at the fair, although the sheer scale of the
festival provided fodder for hours of thought-provoking exploration.
There was something of a medical theme in a few of the installations,
such as the morbid "dead body" poking out from an open morgue container,
and a series of X-ray images of everyday items. And for anyone who has
ever wondered about the internal anatomy of a cartoon mouse, there's an
8-foot model with half its innards exposed - shiny blue colon and pink
and yellow heart included.